Acts 19:13

‘But certain also of the strolling Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches”.'

Ephesus is here revealed to be a centre of the occult. This was so much so that the phrase 'Ephesian writings' (Ephesia grammata) was common in antiquity for documents containing spells and magical formulae. We have already encountered Bar-jesus in Cyprus (Acts 13:6). Jews especially appear to have been involved in exorcisms, and there was a recent history of exorcism in Judaism as is evident from the literature at Qumran (compare Luke 11:19), which exorcism (probably spuriously) dated itself back to the time of Solomon, and even Abraham. Here in Ephesus, seeing the wonders performed in the name of Jesus, Jewish exorcists took His name and added it to their armoury. Their failure to appreciate Who He was or to seek to have any relationship with Him comes out in the way in which they are said to have used the name, ‘by Jesus Whom Paul preaches'. They are in total contrast with the one of whom Jesus spoke in Luke 9:49.

Interestingly a papyrus that has been discovered mentions the use of the name of Jesus in exorcisms in the form ‘I adjure you by Jesus, the God of the Hebrews', while the Rabbinic prohibition of using the name of Jesus in exorcisms indicates that it certainly occurred. Thus there is no good reason for doubting the historicity of these verses.